Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (19:09): (1433) I have a matter tonight for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to meet with local landholders in Rubicon to discuss their considerable concerns about a solar panel farm being established along the Taggerty-Thornton and Rubicon roads in Thornton. Residents are desperate for you to understand their concerns and realise why the establishment of such a huge project is inappropriate in the Rubicon Valley. There is a proposal currently by SREA, a subsidiary of the Samsung conglomerate – I guess you would say that is a corporate giant – to construct an industrial-scale solar farm and battery energy storage system in the Rubicon Valley. This is not about being anti-renewables at all, this is about considerable concerns that local residents have.

I attended a meeting with residents at the Thornton football club on 8 November, and there were probably about 30 or so people there. I was hearing that when they had had meetings with the representatives they did not have any answers to the questions that were raised by the community. It looks like it is a 300-hectare project, which could have between 140,000 and 200,000 solar panels. This is in a very beautiful, idyllic part of the state. People are worried, because they have said that Samsung and SREA have a poor global sustainability and ethical record, and this further undermines their confidence in their ability to manage this project responsibly.

The fire hazard concerns were very real; the proposed site lies within a very high bushfire risk area, and it is surrounded by farmland in one area and dense forest and steep terrain on the other. The inclusion of lithium batteries and transformers introduces a severe fire and explosion hazard. The district has only one road in and out, making evacuation during a fire or emergency event very dangerous. They also lack the resources and capacity to contain a transformer or lithium battery fire, which could endanger lives, destroy property, and cause long-term environmental damage to this part of the state. Further, there are two schools in that area, Camp Jungai and the Rubicon Outdoor School, and they are one road in, one road out. It is very difficult to evacuate people should there be a need. Residents asked me to ask the Minister for Planning if she would come to Rubicon or meet with them in Thornton to look at the area and to meet with the residents and understand their concerns. They realise now that they have very little say and the sign-off rests with the Minister for Planning. Council do not have much of an input, and they want the Minister for Planning to absolutely understand their concerns for this project.